


Smoothie

by regentzilla



Category: Dragon Quest IX
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-10
Updated: 2013-11-10
Packaged: 2018-01-01 00:57:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,086
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1038442
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/regentzilla/pseuds/regentzilla
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It was because Krak Pot sat so constantly on the counter of the inn that he saw Patty sneak out every night and come back as light was breaking, tousled and sweaty and smiling. It didn't take much cogitation for him to figure out where she was going.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Smoothie

Krak Pot was quite content to simply sit in his spot atop the counter at the Quester’s Rest, day in and day out. Sometimes Erinn would elect to store him beneath the counter to make room for a rash of guests, or run a rag over his dented and tarnished surface during one of her cleaning sprees, but for the most part he simply sat.

It was because he sat so constantly that he saw Patty sneak out every night and come back as light was breaking, tousled and sweaty and smiling.

It didn't take much cogitation at all for him to surmise that she was likely out fighting monsters, like she used to do in her days of adventure. 

He addressed her one night during the summer, when it was sticky-hot out on the fields and sweltering inside the inn. She pinned up her too-thick blue hair and sat on her chair behind the counter, propped up her feet and hiked her skirts up above her knees.

“Good evening, Miss Ruida,” Krak Pot bubbled. 

Patty yelped with alarm and flung her dress back to the ground. 

“Oh, dear. Apologies. I didn’t realize my outburst would be matched!”

She stared for a moment in the orange light illuminating the interior of the building, then laughed, leaning back so far her chair creaked.

Krak Pot would not admit it, but he was a bit confused. “Miss Ruida?”

“None of that ‘Miss’ junk. Call me Patty.”

“Patty, then.”

She looked at him, smiling, head cocked and eyebrows drawn in false suspicion. “How gentlemanly. You’re usually more crotchety with the Celestrian kid.”

Krak Pot made a sound that approximated an offended sniff, something he’d picked up before his days at the inn, and hopped awkwardly on his stubby legs to face Patty. She raised an eyebrow at the sight, amused.

“You’ve been out fighting monsters, am I right?”

“Nothing particularly big or beastly," she replied, brushing traces of dirt from the hem of her dress, "just keeping in shape.”

"And is there a reason you have to sneak about at night?" 

Patty sighed. "Not really. The more people know I go out monster-mashing, the more people will ask questions, and eventually they'll get to Phoebe." 

Krak Pot rattled his lid sympathetically. He only knew about Phoebe in passing, but it was a sad story. He felt empty and tarnished just thinking about it. "I see. It's always hard when people bring up old wounds. I apologize." 

Patty waved a hand, a 'don't worry about it' kind of gesture, reaching below her section of the counter to fish out some medicinal herbs. She always had a few stashed there. Now Krak Pot knew why.

“Were you injured?”

“Of course not. These things are good for sore muscles, though, or if I ever stretch a tendon or something like that. They taste awful, though, and they’re tough to chew.”

Krak Pot flapped one of the wings on his side. “Hold on, Patty, I think I know how to help!”

She looked up, quizzically. “How might that be?”

“Just pop those in me,” he said, “as well as a jar of nectar and a bottle of fresh water.”

Patty smiled, eyes alight with curiosity, and rushed to the back stock to find the ingredients. She was always ready for an adventure, no matter how small.

“You know, I used to belong to a team of adventurers before I was purchased by Edwinn.” Krak Pot reminisced, almost bubbling over with nostalgia. “The things I saw out there!”

Patty returned and placed the two bottles on the counter, opening Krak Pot’s lid slowly so as not to damage the hinge.

“I’m not _that_ ancient, you know,” he huffed.

She giggled in response, poured in the nectar and water as instructed, then tore up the herbs and added them as well.

“Stand back,” he warned, wings clacking against his sides, and Patty thought that might be his way of cracking his knuckles. “I’m about to work some alchemical magic.”

He rattled against the counter so loudly that Patty wondered how he wasn’t waking Erinn and Sellma, not to mention the guests. Steam vented out of every pore and crack, dyed pink by the rising sun, which was now casting hot squares of light through the windows.

“Try… this!” Krak Pot said, shooting open his lid with a burst of steam and firing a bottle of something out. Patty caught it, all startled reflex.

“What is it?” She asked, turning the delicate glass over in her hands. The liquid inside it was a rather pretty shade of pale green, almost like celery.

“An herbal drink. All the benefits of medicinal herbs, none of the stringy bother, with a touch of nectar for flavour.”

Patty tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear. She looked quite touched, pausing to find words again. “I… thank you, Krak Pot.”

He chortled, another trick he picked up in the days before Edwinn. “Not at all, my dear. I remember adventuring, how tough and rewarding it was. Every now and again you need a touch of something to make your life easier.”

She smiled and placed his lid back down. “I’ll have it in my room. I think I might have some biscuits left to take it with.”

Krak Pot jostled himself about until he was once again facing the front door of the Quester’s Rest. “Please do enjoy. And feel free to come by and make some more anytime.”

Patty snuck upstairs silently, without a single creak from the normally cacophonous stairs- ever the thief, she was- and showed up for her work that afternoon looking bright as the sun now shining down on the roof instead of peeking through the windows from behind the horizon. Before she finished her day she offered to clean up, and she polished Krak Pot to a shine that he hadn’t known for years.

She made the herbal drink every night when she returned from her little excursions, and soon enough she and Krak Pot were spending their mornings chattering away about their greatest adventures, their grandest exploits. She told everyone at the Quester's Rest about her new favourite drink every chance she got (and Krak Pot would bubble away quite proudly every time she did), but didn’t share the recipe, simple as it was. 'It's a secret between me and a friend', she'd say, and then give it away by winking at Krak Pot while he chortled and rattled against the counter.


End file.
